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Friday, September 30, 2011

The iPhone has become an essential tool for me when travelling. As mentioned in an earlier post, the iPhone can replace many gadgets that are helpful to have on trips, such as a GPS navigation device, camera, and alarm clock. And in several cases, the Safari web browser app and other iOS apps can reduce the need to even bring a laptop on a trip.

Cellular data access (like EDGE or 3G) is required to make the iPhone fully functional while travelling. With cellular data access, you can view the latest traffic, check weather with the current conditions, and access any website almost anywhere you are. If your phone uses a United States plan and you are in the United States, coverage is available in most places and it is included in your domestic data plan. Just make sure you have enough on your data plan to cover your needs. If you go outside of the domestic area, there are additional data roaming charges and these fees can add up quickly if you do not get an international data plan and manage your data usage.

I recently took a trip to Toronto, Ontario, Canada from Buffalo, New York. Because this trip took me out of the United States and my domestic data plan, I took the normal precautions to avoid voice and data roaming charges. I used Wi-Fi when it was available and took advantage of specific capabilities in several apps to get the most functionality out of the iPhone without cellular data access.

This post provides recommendations for helpful iOS apps to use while travelling by:

Listing iPhone apps I used during the trip to Toronto.

Providing tips on using these apps to avoid cellular data access and roaming charges.